Himley Village Bicester

Local development should mean local jobs. Cala Homes is delivering Himley Village, a new community of up to 1,700 homes on Middleton Stoney Road in Bicester, as part of the North West Bicester Eco-Town. Through its Section 106 Training and Employment Plan, Cala has committed to creating 85 construction apprenticeship opportunities, and to ensuring all job vacancies, apprenticeships and supplier opportunities are advertised to Bicester residents first. Outline permission 14/02121/OUT, granted on 30 January 2020, covers the homes plus a retirement village, a primary school, a neighbourhood centre, an energy centre, sports pitches and open space. It is a landscape led scheme, with a green grid of streets, allotments, an orchard, play areas, and a Village Green and Water Green at its heart. Homes range from 2 to 5 bedrooms, and 30 per cent are affordable in line with Cherwell policy. Every home is gas free: air source heat pumps, solar PV, underfloor heating and electric vehicle charging, on a development targeting net zero operational carbon. That shapes the work on offer. Timber frame, solar, heat pumps and EV charging are the trades this build needs, and they are the trades the apprenticeships and local recruitment are built around. Schedule 8 of the Section 106 Agreement sets the Training and Employment Plan out in full. The 85 apprenticeship starts work out at 0.05 per home, phased as 6 in Phase 2A, which is live now, 12 in Phase 2B, 7 in Phase 2C and 60 in Phase 3. Every apprenticeship, job, training place and supply chain opportunity goes to residents in Bicester and within 5 miles first, then across Oxfordshire, then wider. The plan also commits Cala to a local supplier database, two Meet the Buyer events per phase, promotion of home working, and an annual monitoring report to Cherwell District Council on the Enterprise Oxfordshire template. This site is where those commitments turn into something a Bicester resident can act on. It publishes the Section 106 targets and the progress made against them, lists every job, apprenticeship and training place in one searchable feed, holds the registered local supplier directory, and gives Cherwell District Council and Enterprise Oxfordshire a dated record of delivery from day one. Storey Consulting is the appointed Local Employment Coordinator and the single point of contact for the plan. Source: Himley Village Training and Employment Plan V4.0, June 2026; Cala Homes public consultation boards; Cherwell District Council outline permission 14/02121/OUT.